What About Those Who Really Need Help?

This is in regard to the article on Terry Ballard (“Catching Up With ‘90s Newsmakers,” Dec. 31). Why don’t you write about someone who really needs help?

While I sympathize with (Ballard) in not finding a job, she certainly is not in financial difficulty. If she made $45,000, her husband is probably making at least $60,000, and because he is still employed she would still have health insurance. Now, she will probably get a nice fat job because of the write-up in the paper.

What about people who have lost their jobs, have no other income and can’t get or can’t afford health insurance?

My son also was an engineer at Douglas Aircraft and was laid off at about the same time as Ballard, but he was not making $45,000 a year. He too thought he would find another job in a short time but has not. He has spent hundreds of dollars answering ads, sending out letters and resumes, and hunting jobs everywhere. He is single and has no other income to depend on. His unemployment is about to run out, and his savings are about gone. He has bills like everyone else, a condo payment, car expense, utilities, insurance. Yet he would not expect to get a write-up in the paper because he knows there are other people worse off. He at least doesn’t have children to feed.

We have read The Times many years, and it seems all too often the people you write about are either wealthy or well-to-do and really don’t need any help.

EILEEN L. LUHMANN

La Habra